Best Gaming CPUs For The Money: January 2012 (Archive)

[logainofhades]

I still think the 4440 needs to be mentioned here. A $70 gap is pretty sizable and that small clock boost doesn't mean much of anything when gaming as the3.1 GHz is more than beefy enough. The real story of stepping from the i3 to i5 is the four physical cores and larger L3. I'll pay $50 for that, but I don't need to spend ~$20 extra for a performance boost I won't even notice outside benchmarks.

The 4430,4440, and 4570 have been all over the map on pricing. Quite often the 4570 is cheaper, or so close in price, that a 4430 or 4440 isn't worth looking at. Today it is the 4440, tomorrow, who knows? Maybe it should read i5 4430 with a mention of this issue, so the buyers know to look at 4430, 4440, and 4570 before they buy.

The 1230v3 also deserves an honorable mention for the non overclocking crowd. I would buy one before I would consider a 4670k or 4770k, as I am no longer interested in overclocking.

 

[harly2]

That chart is so ridiculous, nuff said

 

[RedJaron]

The 4430,4440, and 4570 have been all over the map on pricing. Quite often the 4570 is cheaper, or so close in price, that a 4430 or 4440 isn't worth looking at. Today it is the 4440, tomorrow, who knows? Maybe it should read i5 4430 with a mention of this issue, so the buyers know to look at 4430, 4440, and 4570 before they buy.

The 1230v3 also deserves an honorable mention for the non overclocking crowd. I would buy one before I would consider a 4670k or 4770k, as I am no longer interested in overclocking.

True enough, the pricing does bounce around a lot. Which is why I think the 4430/40 should at least be mentioned. List all three and say whichever one is cheaper that day is probably the best value at the time.

As much as I like the 1230v3 as an enthusiast chip ( I too don't care much for CPU OCing, ) I don't know that I would recommend it for a gaming-first machine. You're spending $250 on a chip for tasks that largely won't benefit from its larger cache or extra threads. If you want a non-OC gaming chip, I wouldn't go above the 4570. Save that $50, put it toward a nicer case, better GPU, etc.

For the semi-professional crowd that runs a lot of simultaneous tasks, VMs, servers, and such and does a fair amount of gaming, yes, the 1230v3 makes wonderful sense. If that niche is large enough for an honorable mention, by all means list the 1230v3. That good news is that people who find themselves in that are likely people who are more aware and educated in their options and may not need this list so much.

 

[logainofhades]

With games starting to recommend i7's, yes I would want the 1230v3. I would pick the 1230v3 over a 4770k as well. The 1230v3 is a far better buy than a 4770k and you can get a CPU and board combo cheaper than what is required to have a 4670k combo. i7 4770 performance, for less, yes please. 😀 It is the best option for gamers wanting the i7 performance, but not wanting to overclock or fork over the extra $100+ for a 4770k combo.

 

[RedJaron]

With games starting to recommend i7's, yes I would want the 1230v3. I would pick the 1230v3 over a 4770k as well. The 1230v3 is a far better buy than a 4770k and you can get a CPU and board combo cheaper than what is required to have a 4670k combo. i7 4770 performance, for less, yes please. 😀 It is the best option for gamers wanting the i7 performance, but not wanting to overclock or fork over the extra $100+ for a 4770k combo.

When compared to an i7, yes, I'll take the Xeon nearly every time since it's so much cheaper. Compared to the cheaper i5 though? I'm unaware of any games that recommend the i7 right now. Arma 3 and BF4 themselves only recommend a quad-core ( technically, yes, the i7 is a quad-core. ) The majority of the gaming bottleneck is still on the GPU side and I've yet to see any actual numbers that show the i7/Xeon will substantially improve gameplay over an i5 paired with a decent GPU.

 

[logainofhades]

THG recommends i7 for Crysis 3. BF4 will make use of the i7's extra threads in 64 man campaigns. Watch Dogs, from what I have been seeing on here, is recommending an i7 as well. Not saying an i5 cannot run them, but for those looking to get the most out of such titles, without overclocking, should be looking at the Xeon. You can get a Xeon 1230v3/B85 pro4 combo for less than a 4670k/z87/CM 212 combo. The 1230v3 deserves an honorable mention just as much, if not more so than a 4770k.

 

[Landstander]

I picked up an FX-8320 from Amazon a couple weeks back on a short sale for $130. Bang for buck that blows the FX-6300 out of the water.

There's still at least one retailer listing that price right now.

 

[Landstander]

The FX-9xxx, 8320 & 8350 are Tier 2, but the $200 i5-4570 is Tier 1? I know overclocking isn't taken into account (although it should be), but with modern games favoring higher core counts, that just doesn't seem right.

 

[ipwn3r456]

Still rockin' with my Sandy Bridge CPU. Guess no need to upgrade at all. Hope broadwell will have a good improvement.

 

[de5_Roy]

@redjaron and logain: the reason core i5 4430-4570 prices fluctuate recently due to the upcoming launch of haswell refresh lineup, which will replace those cpus in their respective price points.
in my opinion, the i5 4570 is a bit of a bad buy now. the core i5 3350p was replaced in the recommendations too late in the refresh cycle. with locked cpus you need as much ipc and clockrate as possible since they're not multiplier-unlocked. if the i5 3350p was replaced in the recommendations soon after eol notice came out, the replacement haswell core i5 woulda looked better.

 

[fooad333]

the fx 9370 and fx 8350 should be here cheap and strong

 

[MaeClark0318]

well, why i3-4130 is on the list? I dont feel it good for gaming (well, cheap, but may good for normal not gaming though)

 

[Maxrinus]

Are you guys mad?

look at this chart http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

The AMD FX-6350 only scores 32 points less but also costs SIXTY friggin' dollars less, yet you still recommend this intel.

Fail

 

[Someone Somewhere]

Passmark. Yuck. That's sort of held up as an example of how synthetics can be entirely useless.

 

[Sakkura]

well, why i3-4130 is on the list? I dont feel it good for gaming (well, cheap, but may good for normal not gaming though)

It is good for gaming. In many games, it's on par with the FX-8350.

 

[Maxrinus]

Passmark. Yuck. That's sort of held up as an example of how synthetics can be entirely useless.

Oh well, my apologies I guess.

What do you recommend when it comes to reliable online benchmarks? Also for GPU's?

 

[Someone Somewhere]

Anandtech's charts are usually pretty good.

 

[Maxrinus]

Anandtech's charts are usually pretty good.

Thank you

 

[logainofhades]

@redjaron and logain: the reason core i5 4430-4570 prices fluctuate recently due to the upcoming launch of haswell refresh lineup, which will replace those cpus in their respective price points.
in my opinion, the i5 4570 is a bit of a bad buy now. the core i5 3350p was replaced in the recommendations too late in the refresh cycle. with locked cpus you need as much ipc and clockrate as possible since they're not multiplier-unlocked. if the i5 3350p was replaced in the recommendations soon after eol notice came out, the replacement haswell core i5 woulda looked better.

The price fluctuation has been happening for a few months now. Also, the 4570 isn't a bad buy. It doesn't require a z87 board, unless you want crossfire/sli. A 4570 and a B85 pro4 is about $135 cheaper than a 4670k, z87 extreme4, and a coolermaster 212 evo. That $135 is better spent towards a better GPU.

 

[dev893]

You guys keep arguing I'll stick with my budget build when I can spare the cash I'm going with the Athlon X4 760K with a XFX core Radeon R7 265 Video card I'm happy with my build now but the integrated graphics uses syestem memory and thats the only draw back

 

[pdasterly]

I want to upgrade my cpu but according to chart I should wait a few more years, I7 950

 

[RedJaron]

The price fluctuation has been happening for a few months now. Also, the 4570 isn't a bad buy. It doesn't require a z87 board, unless you want crossfire/sli. A 4570 and a B85 pro4 is about $135 cheaper than a 4670k, z87 extreme4, and a coolermaster 212 evo. That $135 is better spent towards a better GPU.

Even though I don't OC, I still like the H87 and Z87 boards for the features ( they usually have forward-facing SATA ports, rear I\O eSATA jacks, better audio, etc. ) The H81 and B85 boards are often more stripped down than I want.

The 1230v3 deserves an honorable mention just as much, if not more so than a 4770k.

Excellent point here, If the 4770K gets an honorable mention, the 1230v3 should be listed too.

 

[RedJaron]

You guys keep arguing I'll stick with my budget build when I can spare the cash I'm going with the Athlon X4 760K with a XFX core Radeon R7 265 Video card I'm happy with my build now but the integrated graphics uses syestem memory and thats the only draw back

And for basic gaming, that's a fine system. I don't think any truly educated tech-head would knock it. As Onus often says, as long as you're not Hell-bent on running everything at UltraMegaWow settings, a modest system can deliver perfectly playable and enjoyable results.

I want to upgrade my cpu but according to chart I should wait a few more years, I7 950

My 2600K system is now three years old and absolutely no problem either. And I have an E8400 / GT 8800 system that's still somewhat capable at games. While it's fun to get something shiny and new, my bank account thanks me that I don't have to completely overhaul my main system every three years. It's kind of nice being able to get so much performance for so relatively cheap these days. As much as I'd like to replace my Radeon 6870, I'm hardly suffering for playable frame rates.

 

[Onus]

Exactly. Building in future-resistance is boring, because it denies you the excuse to upgrade, but it saves a LOT of money. If anything, I will satisfy my itch to build by testing a low-power Kabini system to see how it does; I play mostly older and less-demanding games, so it ought to be fine (based on that PCPER review that paired it with a GTX750Ti).
And yes, it's amazing how much higher your FPS can be if you don't insist on "UltraMaxOhWOW!" settings. Even "medium" looks pretty good in a lot of games now.

 

[logainofhades]

Once I get around to getting an HDTV, I am interested in a Kabini HTPC. To do so now would be a bit pointless.